Esther van Ryswyk

Esther van Ryswyk (19**-2001). Theatre performer, director, lecturer and educationist.

Biography

Having trained at the University of Stellenbosch under Robert Mohr, she initially became an actress for NTO and CAPAB, as well as a most influential and beloved lecturer at the University of Cape Town Drama Department in the 1970s, teaching Afrikaans speech and theatre, and educational theatre. She also lectured at the University of Stellenbosch. She was a freelance director from 1982 onwards.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Besides her teaching, she has been an active director and performer and an influential theorist and innovator.

Work in theatre

As an actress she has appeared in Our Town/Ons Dorp (1959), Agt Vroue, Maria Stuart (1965), Die Les.

As a professional stage director over the years she did i.a. Koning Lysterbaard, Voorlopige Vonnis, Arsenic and Old Lace, God’s Forgotten (Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1975), Skote! (Pieter-Dirk Uys, with Jan van Riebeeck H/S students, 1976), Om die Stilte te Verbreek (CAPAB 1985, Episodes of an Easter Rising with the Handspring Puppet Company in South Africa and at the World Festival of Puppet Theatres in Charville, France in 1985, The Horse Thief (CAPAB 1986, Christine (CAPAB 1987), Indaba (Baxter Theatre 1987), A Midsummer Night's Dream (a ground-breaking production in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company and utilizing outsize puppets, at the Oude Libertas Theatre, Stellenbosch, 1988). Other plays include Die Hemelbed, Germanicus and Dias

Her production of Hallo en Koebaai originated at the Baxter Theatre before moving to Upstairs at the Market in 1987.

Work in film

Film work as actress includes the roles of "Bella Roux" in Ma Skryf Matriek (1975) and "Sally" in Uitdraai (1988).

Her role as educational innovator and DIE specialist

She was a leading figure in a movement to introduce the principles of drama-in-education and theatre-in-education into South Africa. In 198* she instigated the idea of a national association and became the founder and long-time president of the South African Association for Drama and Youth Theatre (SAADYT).

Her publication Children's Theatre in South Africa, has been included in the American publication A Guide to Children's Theatre in the World by Lowell Swortzell.

Awards, etc

She won a Vita Award (Cape region) 1992 for her lifelong commitment to training theatre practitioners and the advancement of theatre for young people in South Africa [judges' citation].

From the Cape Tercentenary Foundation she was awarded the Molteno Medal for lifetime services to theatre.